The Importance of Prevention

A month of May about visual and training prevention for health professionals; two different events with a common denominator. At the Institute for the Blind F. Cavazza, from May 8th to the 13th, took place the event "open week," a full week dedicated to the prevention of the most common visual diseases. Following the unquestionable success of the past edition, it was decided to extend the duration of this initiative from one day to a whole week, thus responding to the many requests of citizens increasingly aware of the importance of early diagnosis in the care and rehabilitation of all illnesses. A few days later, on May 19th, Catania hosted the 3rd edition of the pediatric ophthalmology convention Amgo, a learning event founded at the same time as the project of the same name relating to the prevention of amblyopia at the Institute. The study day, where were present prestigious names of the Italian ophthalmology sector, received considerable interest among practitioners, a sign of the positive impact of the project on numerous other Italian stakeholders interested in our mandate. Why is the concept of prevention so important? An answer is also found in recent estimates portraying a reality where, thanks to new and modern technologies, we are observing a gradual reduction in the number of blind people to the detriment of a rise in the number of people with low vision.

According to the World Health Organization's Universal Eye Health Action Plan 2014-2019, 285 million people worldwide live with a visual impairment, and out of these people 39 million of them are blind. According to the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT), in 2005, 362,000 people were blind in Italy and 1.5 million had low vision. Obviously, among the main causes contributing to the rise of potentially disabling diseases is the increasing life expectancy, which may lead to age-related diseases such as macular degeneration. Regular eye health checks, healthy lifestyles, and the habit of protecting our eyes from excessive exposure to sunlight, by wearing proper sunglasses, are among the simple recommendations for maintaining visual health.

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